After weeks of rumors, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Monday that the Trump administration is re-designating Cuba as a “state sponsor of terror.” The move could hamper efforts by the incoming Biden administration to attempt to normalize relations with Havana.
Cuba was first designated as a state sponsor of terror by the Reagan administration in 1982. This move was reversed in 2015 by President Obama, who took other steps to normalize with Havana, including lifting travel restrictions and sanctions on Cuban goods.
Since Obama never fully lifted the decades-old trade embargo on Cuba, the Trump administration was able to reverse his steps towards normalization. Since coming into office, President Trump has gradually re-imposed Cuba-related sanctions and travel restrictions.
To reverse Pompeo’s action, the Biden administration will have to certify the delisting with Congress, a process that could take months. Currently, the only other countries listed as state sponsors of terror are Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
One of the reasons Pompeo cites for the designation is Cuba’s support for Venezuelan President Nicola Maduro. The US claims Cuba’s military is keeping Maduro in power, but that is not the case. The reality of the situation is that Juan Guaido, who the US recognized as president of Venezuela, never had much support in the country. Guaido’s attempted coups failed miserably, and the military has stayed loyal to Maduro.
Pompeo’s announcement marked the second terror designation he announced this week. On Sunday night, he released a statement that said the administration will designate Yemen’s Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. The designation that will have grave consequences for the civilians in Yemen who are suffering from severe food shortages due to the US-backed Saudi-led war on Yemen.
With the Trump administration in its final days, Pompeo seems determined to enact as many hardline policies as he can to tie the hands of the incoming administration.
trump is reduced to an incompetent farce—so impotent that the ruling class replaced him with a corrupt nursing home dementia patient
What changed to justify this?
I have a dream…..a dream that some future president will unilaterally tear up the “state sponsor of terror” list, (one the U.S. itself should be on), and simultaneously end all sanctions on all countries and individuals. It’s time for Washington to do some introspection.
That time is lang past. Soft power is a distant memory. Pompeo knows he’s acting like a thug, …and he’s enjoying it. And he knows Biden is too insipid to reverse him.
He did say dream.
Not so sure. It was Obama and Biden who moved towards normalizing relations with Cuba in Obama’s second term. There’s just no point political or otherwise in keeping up the demonizing of Cuba (not that I’m saying demonization is ever a good thing).
Latin America is our backyard and no part of it is ever allowed to be autonomous -Chavismo, Sandinismo, Allende, Bosch, Fidel, Arbenz, …and so on were doomed -all the way back to Madison’s Sec. of State, James Madison. The consistent practice is for comprador regimes.
Presently China’s New Silk Road is gaining great footholds in South America. Particularly frightening to them are the lithium mining deals with Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia. Hence, Lula was framed and imprisoned and the “Evo Morales phenom” appears to be following a similar pattern with Chavismo.
Pompeeoo needs to be removed before he causes any further damage to American foreign relations.
Does that mean that Drumpf is going to order Cuba to be shot up?
Ok
Two terror designations in todays headlines. Today’s still early though. Pompeo should be done with dinner soon. Who’s next?
Hey if Trump and the GOP can lie for months about the results of the election, why not lie about Cuba being a state sponsor of terror and Iran being linked up with al Qaeda (bin Laden’s version of Islam isn’t even an”interpretation” of the Qu’ran, it’s a radical revision of Islam, which forbids the targeting / killing of civilians in war; Iran’s clerics get this much right, hence the fatwa against nuclear weapons).
these acts merely reveal the desperation of an empire near collapse–5-10 years
US sanctions 60 nations, Cuba since 1960
“US State Department announces Cuba is designated as a State Sponsor of Terror…..Secretary of State Pompeo made the announcement at CIA headquarters in Langley Virginia while overseeing the drone program of bombing civilians in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa.”😕
So I guess Pompeo is running the country now. Maybe somebody ought to mention that to Trump.
I’m not an expert in these matters. But I have a hunch it will take about 30 seconds to reverse anything Pompeo has done this year.
WTF? Why? What terror? The Bay of Pigs?
I am really struggling to recall any Cuban terrorist attacks.
The US on the other hand.
With the violent events that unfolded in Washington, DC last week, I declare the USA a state sponsor of terror.